


a composition: three high school not-quite-sophomores in a painterly style

by aut0_resp0nder



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Highschoolstuck, Humanstuck, Multi, but idk if ill post it yet, might add more to this if you guys like it!!! i have some more written, theyre kiddos! just kiddos, unrestrained summer fun with karkat vriska and dave
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-30 16:29:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15755520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aut0_resp0nder/pseuds/aut0_resp0nder
Summary: Don't leave me tongue tiedLet's stay up all nightI'll get real highSlumber party; pillow fightMy eyes and your eyesLike Peter Pan up in the skyMy best friend's house tonightLet's bump the beats till beddy-bye-"Tongue Tied", Grouplove





	a composition: three high school not-quite-sophomores in a painterly style

11:45 pm  
vriska snort-laughs at something on the tv, replying to an unasked question with something snarky--the other two aren’t listening. the red-green-blue-orange halo of the screen is halfway obscured by karkat’s dresser with its chipping paint and missing leg. she pauses, grimaces, reaches her skinny arms up, over, cracks her back once-twice-thrice with a series of loud pops, her funny machine-gun vriska-laughs renewed at karkat’s gross-out expression. they’re a happy fifteen years old, and it’s july. 

dave groans, throws an arm over his face dramatically, flings a soft and squashy pillow ten feet perfectly into vriska’s face. she snatches it off, looks at the smudge of dark blue makeup gracing its fabric case, and sticks her tongue out at him. karkat mock-swoons over her lap, all ‘ohmygod, serket, how could you do this, sullying my pillowcase with your waxy corporate girl germs’. vriska opens her mouth to retaliate, but dave beats her to it--he takes a deep breath and goes for it. he fucking lunges, karkat barely scrambling out of the way before dave’s wiry arms are clamped around vriska’s middle like a vise, knocking the wind out of both of them. dave wiggles his fingers around, and vriska’s eyes go wide before she breaks into a smile and into very un-vriska-like titters as dave tickles her relentlessly. her usual laugher isn’t quite as animated as karkat’s oddly endearing raspy giggles, but it’s ostensibly louder than dave’s stifled chuckling. 

but it’s karkat who laughs this time, as dave pins a squirming vriska under his bony elbows. she raises a thin arm like she’s experiencing the rapture, shrieks like she’s having a tooth pulled, her other hand’s fingers tangled in dave’s hair. she yanks up, dave’s head following. his hands slow and the metaphorical record scratches as they stare at each other, silent, for one tense and frozen moment, dave’s sunglasses perched on his forehead and vriska’s glasses laying forgotten at her side, the atmosphere suddenly made of glass so sharp karkat hardly dares to breathe. 

all at once the air shatters as vriska yanks dave’s head down to meet hers and she kisses him, like she’s drowning, like the world’s ending and he’s her only salvation. karkat’s jaw drops. dave moves to pull away, thinks better of it, and leans back, pulling vriska with him into a sitting position. both her hands are twisted in his hair now, crushing them together. her lipstick makes little smudges on his chin. they finally separate, breathing heavily, and with supernatural synchronicity they turn around with eyes blown wide--coming to a rest on karkat’s shocked face.

karkat breathes a “holy shit” into a long silence before the tenseness bursts and dave starts laughing, louder than either of them have ever heard him laugh, all breathless and bubbling out of him in waves, unceasing even as vriska and then karkat join in until the room is bursting with raucous yelling and kankri bangs his fist on the wall from the room next door to tell them to be quiet, for god’s sake, it’s almost midnight and he’s trying to study.

12:30 am  
they sleep tangled up together like they always do, curled up like cats on the too-small bed, karkat’s arms around dave and dave’s legs twisted with vriska’s and vriska’s unruly mane of licorice-black hair fanned out behind all three of them like the waves of the sea at night, smelling of the same sugary children’s blueberry-cherry-green-apple hair soap that dave fucking loves and karkat calls a liquid war crime in a bottle. karkat’s brow creases in his sleep, and his knuckles pale as his hand clenches around the fistful of dave’s shirt he’d unconsciously grasped. vriska shifts around, her back to dave, pressing him closer to karkat who takes the opportunity to hold tighter. 

karkat’s nail painfully clips a bit of dave’s skin and dave stirs, cracking one eye open to see karkat’s face. his eyes are moving back and forth beneath his eyelids like fish swimming just below the surface of the water, his shoulders twitching rhythmically with his shallow breathing, his hair messy and frizzing outward. a mostly-asleep dave barely registers ‘nightmare’ before vriska flops over behind him, pressing her nose into the back of his neck and snaking her arm up to rest over the two of them, her elbow level with dave’s and her hand coming to rest on karkat’s shoulder. the effect is almost immediate--karkat’s breaths steadily slow to an even pace, his eyebrows un-knit (as much as they ever do). dave closes his eyes again, pushing the top of his head into the small space between karkat’s collarbone and shoulder.

2:00 am  
dave’s awake, dragging a hand through his messy hair and extricating himself from his best friends, pulling a shirt and his shades on, cocking an ear at the low, ominous rumbling of far-off thunder outside the window. he’s almost forgotten about the feeling of a girl’s lips on his as he shakes a grumbling karkat awake, then a yawning vriska. karkat shoves his bare feet into a pair of tennis shoes without undoing the double-knotted laces and vriska just barely manages to tug a flimsy raincoat over her tank top before dave grabs their arms and whisks them out of karkat’s room and down the hall. they pass kankri’s locked door, meulin’s ajar one and the skinny staircase that leads to nepeta’s attic before karkat fumbles in the dark with the lock on the front door, vriska’s hand over his mouth to muffle his frustrated swearing and dave’s hands perched on one of his shoulders. the door finally swings open and they tumble out into the breezy night, rain-heavy clouds gathering overhead and distant lightning cutting luminous paths through the turbulent sky. vriska asks, ‘where first?’ 

dave gets a funny little smile on his face and then they’re flying down the street, whooping and hollering. karkat gives up on untying his shoes and decides instead to carry them, his bare feet grating against the smooth concrete--vriska and dave forwent the shoes entirely, dave in just a t-shirt and loose-fitting, low-slung boxer shorts and vriska in a loose jacket over her camisole and leggings. her hair tumbles down her back in waves as she runs, and she runs fast; a track star, and deserving of the title. dave beats karkat to the gates of their old elementary school’s baseball diamond, but vriska beats both boys by a good two minutes, her face flushed from the exertion and her eyes wild behind her smudged glasses as she reaches over and in between the metal bars to the lock, jamming her bobby pin into the keyhole and popping the gate open with a muffled click.

they go on everything at least once: dave stands precariously on the balance beam, feet lined up and arms spread-eagle to either side; karkat perches like a bird of prey on the thick plasticine-bar structure above the twisty slide; vriska dangles from just her legs on the monkey bars, her hair falling in a black velvet curtain to the woodchips below. shoes hit the ground just as a crack of thunder sounds--karkat jumps from the playground structure at precisely the same time the sky opens up and zeus’s wrath comes pouring down in buckets on their heads. 

2:30 am  
they’ve taken refuge from the thunderstorm under the thin awning of the school’s courtyard, smashed together like sardines in a tin to stay as dry as possible (even though they’re all already soaked to the bones) with karkat facing vriska, vriska facing dave, and dave’s sunglasses freckled with droplets of rainwater. they’re laughing hard enough to crack their ribs and the whole world smells like wet wood and ozone clouds and vriska’s fruity hair soap. they're happy.


End file.
